Many camper shells for installation in the bed of a pickup truck are fitted with a window on the front surface of the camper, which window is in substantial alignment with the rear window of the truck. In order to allow communication or access between the cabin of the truck and the bed of the truck, as covered by the camper shell, while preventing the unwanted intrusion of water or other fluids into either the cabin or the camper, a flexible seal or boot is often fitted. These boots are typically substantially tubular structures, having a central aperture and two ends, and an outline which approximates the camper window and/or the truck rear window. One end is typically attached to the outer front surface of the camper, about the camper window. This attachment is generally accomplished by mechanical fasteners or adhesives. Alternatively, the boot may be elastically received into a channel mourned or formed on the front surface of the camper. When the camper is installed in the truck, the camper window is in substantial alignment with the rear window in the truck cabin, and the boot, being compressed against the outer rear surface of the cabin, is designed to seal both the cabin and the camper from the unwanted intrusion of fluids therebetween. Seals of this class are often compressive in nature, but may be either permanently or semi-permanently sealed to the cabin.
In practice, these sealing methodologies are seldom satisfactory. In the case where the seal is compressive in nature, vibration, wear, corrosion, the imperfect elasticity of the boot, and/or surface imperfections on either the boot or the truck cabin generally preclude a fully waterproof seal at the cabin-boot joint. In failing to provide a leak-free connection, seals of this class generally allow leakage between the boot and the cabin, and lead to problems such as corrosion and water damage to the cabin interior or to material stored or carried within the shell, and may lead to degradation of the boot itself or other corrosion effects.
In the case where the seal is made permanent, or nearly so, removal of the camper from the pickup truck is either difficult or impossible to effect without damage to the structure or finish of the truck.
Permanent sealing methodologies include the use of fasteners to fasten the boot to the cabin; the use of adhesive seals or products to adhesively seal the boot to the cabin surface; welding or other mechanical attachment of the camper shell or an extension thereof to the cabin of the truck; and the replacement of the original boot with a custom fitted boot appliance which may or may not be a permanent installation, uniting both structures.
Fasteners include screws, bolts, rivets, snaps, hook-and-loop tape, patent fasteners and the like, and almost invariably inflict some damage to the cabin or the camper.
Current adhesive seals include adhesive tapes, adhesively attachable foam strips, caulking compounds, and other adhesive products. Adhesive seals can provide an adequate seal between the truck cabin and the camper shell but do so by forming a permanent seal which is not optimal for removable camper shells. Furthermore, such adhesive seals typically cause damage to the paint or metal structures of the vehicle.
Welding, soldering, brazing a similar permanent structure between the camper and the cabin creates almost complete permanency therebetween, and obviates the removable feature of such camper shells. Welded structures invariably damage the paint or metal structure of the vehicle itself.
Another solution to the leakage problem previously discussed is by replacing the originally installed boot with a custom-fitted replacement boot or boot assembly which utilizes an alternative sealing methodology. One such custom boot assembly is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 4,294,485 to Engelhard. '485 teaches a "resiliently deformable boot frame shaped to the respective contours of the rear window aperture of the truck cab and front window aperture in the forward wall of the camper." "The opposite ends of the boot frame are adapted for attachment to the cab and camper. One of such ends may include a magnetic stripe which may be magnetically adhered to the cab." Thus, it will be seen that '485 teaches replacing the original boot with a replacement which incorporates a magnetic stripe in order to perfect the cabin-boot seal.
While the magnetic seal taught by '485 may provide a possible means of non-permanently sealing a boot with truck cabin, the teachings of that patent do require that the originally fitted boot be replaced. Replacement of a camper boot, particularly with the substantial structure taught by '485, is a laborious and expensive undertaking.
What is needed is a means of incorporating a magnetic sealing element to perfect the cabin-boot seal without the effort and expense of replacing the entire boot assembly. A possible solution to this problem lies in not replacing the boot, but in flashing the joint between the boot and the cabin.
The use of flashing is well known in the roofing arts. Flashing consists of lengths of material, frequently sheet metal or the like, which are used to cover and protect certain joints and angles in roof systems: e.g.: where a roof comes into contact with a wall or chimney. Flashing, as practiced in the roofing trades, is typically applied by means of nails, staples, or adhesives, and therefore forms a substantially permanent installation.
Covering or shielding the existing boot-cabin joint with magnetically attached flashing would prevent the incursion of fluids between the cabin-boot joint without the use of sealing compounds, mechanical fasteners, adhesives, or welded structures. Such flashing, forming an effective magnetically attachable "umbrella" over the boot, would preclude an unwanted degree of permanence in the installation of a camper shell. Such flashing would not require the replacement of the existing boot, but would perfect the seal created by a boot with the cabin, by diverting water from the cabin-boot joint over the body of the boot, and thence away from the joint.